


“Sebastian”

by thaliaarche



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Gen, Post-Chapter 130, Wordcount: 100
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 20:22:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11790759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thaliaarche/pseuds/thaliaarche
Summary: On “Sebastian,” “Ciel,” and other lies.





	“Sebastian”

“Sebastian.”

The demon is to borrow one name from his master’s dog— a fitting indignity, whispers something ugly in him.

“What of my surname?”

The boy shrugs, summoning an arrogance that doesn’t quite fit. “You may choose that, so long as you refrain from picking anything obscene.”

So Sebastian thinks of a certain _Histoire admirable_ , circulated down below as a hilarious work of fiction, and its author.

“Michaelis. I will assume the name ‘Sebastian Michaelis.’”

Thus he takes the name of an overzealous priest, one who dared fancy himself an expert on demons.

Pretension has always entranced this particular demon.

\---

“Sebastian!”

Whenever the boy calls, the demon comes too quickly, armed with grace and butter knives and increasingly absurd ideas of how to perform the “butler aesthetic.” At the same time he watches his master throw himself into the part of the “Queen’s Watchdog,” and the more taxing role of “Earl Ciel Phantomhive.”

They settle deep into their personae, reveling in masks that seem like skin.

Then a single astrologist— a blatant fraud in his own right— strips back the butler’s facade to display a black hole. The master’s lies collapse soon after, revealing nothing but a scared boy underneath.

\---

The boy asked once who his butler was, _truly_.

“Nobody.” The butler smirked at the childish question. “I am nameless.”

“Have you a purpose?”

“Certainly not,” he scoffed.

“Does anybody want you?”

“No.”

He pauses before remarking, “We have something in common then.”

-

They stand at the staircase’s foot, a spare cast from his throne, an abomination hurled from heaven. Yet the boy simply murmurs, “Sebastian?”

The contract flares in one’s skin and the other’s eye, marking butler and master, and Sebastian reaches for his knives before receiving any order.

“Here, my lord.”

(Until those three lies again become truth.)

**Author's Note:**

> I was trying to figure out what I think about the recent developments in the manga, and this was the result . . .


End file.
